For many organizations, finding funding and creating relationships with funders is a foreign enterprise. Finding support in maternal health can be especially challenging when funders are unfamiliar with the problem, let alone the best way to support the solution. In this episode, we will discuss some of the best strategies to help get your message across clearly to funders and some of the best practices that we’ve identified to build long-term relationships with funders. Host: Amber Bolden Guest 1: Guest 1: Amelia Cobb, Health Equity Strategist Guest 2: Gabriel Maldonado, Founder and Executive Director of TruEvolution

Birth Workers of many times have been supporting births long before Western medicine was introduced. In the wake of gaping disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates for Black birthing families, many people are seeking more birth options that require fewer interventions and more communication. For years Black birthworkers throughout LA have been standing up for organizations and operations to be a solution in the wake of this crisis. In this episode, we will introduce the work of some of the community change-makers who are doing this important work.

Host: Amber Bolden

Guest 1: Kimberly Durdin, Co-Founder, Kindred Space, LA www.kindredspacela.com/about

Guest 2: Sydney Curls, Founder, Curlsforthegirls www.drcurlsforthegirls.com

Many of us deal with self-doubt and negative self-talk.  Some of this has been embedded in our psyche from the time when we were very young and we are in places and spaces where we realize we must unlearn some negative narratives to move fully into leadership roles. In this episode, we will hear from some of our Village Fund members to hear more from them about how they are discovering who they think they are so they can move into the roles and service of who they were called to be. 

Guest Nneoma Ogudoro, Founder CEO, Wazobia Dance

Guest Joanne Russell, Let’s Make it Happen

In this conversation, we talk with Alyssa Young, founder of Mama's House of Art, about her journey and mission to create her nonprofit to support Black maternal health. Mama’s House of Art provides space for Black birthing people to share their birth stories and experiences in healing and holistic ways. In this episode, Alyssa shares her lessons learned to build and sustain Mama’s House of Art, not only from a structural point of view but also from a relational perspective.

The concept of soft life was introduced and made popular by social media. It is often positioned as the counter to hustle culture and commonly used as a hashtag following spa days, shopping sprees and general social media luxuriating. The goal of this discussion is to introduce the concept of soft life in a way that applies to work. Here we introduce the idea of flow and methods that support mental health as birth workers and organizational leaders. Host: Amber Bolden & Rakayla Simpson Guest: Sakeenah Hakim, CEO Tranquil Core www.tranquilcore.com